缅北禁地

I am a NUAcT Fellow in the School of Geography, Politics & Sociology. As a feminist political geographer, my research focuses on war, displacement, and the lived experience of refuge with a regional focus on Europe and the Middle East. 

I am currently carrying out the Impact project 'Navigating asylum: towards a rights-based approach', funded by 缅北禁地 Faculty Impact Fund (HaSS).

As a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow (MSCA), I have recently completed the EU-funded research project 'JustAsylum' (€224,933) explores the lived realities and spaces of the Danish asylum procedure. 

Before coming to 缅北禁地 in January 2022, I completed a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Geography, Maynooth University, Ireland. I hold a PhD from the Department of Geography, University of Kentucky, USA. 

Current research project:

Geographies of Displacement (NUAcT Fellowship)

'Navigating asylum: towards a rights-based approach', funded by 缅北禁地 Faculty Impact Fund (HaSS).

Recent research projects:

Asylum, Justice, and Juridical Border Work

My current research project Geographies of asylum justice: the lived realities and spaces of the Danish asylum procedure (JustAsylum) explores the juridical border work at play in the asylum procedure. Developing a feminist intersectional approach, this project will uncover how this legal process of deciding who obtains asylum is constituted spatially, carried out in practice, and experienced by the actors involved.

This research project is funded by the European Commission, Horizon 2020, MSCA program (Grant agreement ID: 101020778), Jan 2022-Dec 2023.  

Law, Time, and Refugee Governance

The research project Precarious Protection: Syrian and Somali Struggles for Refuge in Denmark examined the changing nature of refugee protection. In Western countries signatory to the 1951 UN Convention and 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, refugee protection status has traditionally served as a path to permanent residence and citizenship. Yet, in the wake of recent global refugee crises, the permanency of refugee protection is under intense political scrutiny. Western politicians argue that refugees should return to their home countries once these are deemed stable. In line with this shift, several countries have introduced new temporary protection statuses for refugees, signaling that they will be protected only temporarily. This research project interrogated these shifts in strategies of migration management in European states and their broader significance with respect to the legal provision refugee protection as enshrined in international law.

This research project was funded by the Irish Research Council (GOIPD/2019/773), Oct 2019-Nov 2021.

War, Refuge, and Migration Management

My dissertation, entitled Unsettling Refuge: Syrian Refugees’ Account of Life in Denmark, analyzed the relationships between the lived experiences of Syrian refugees and the Danish state’s efforts to contain and govern refugees across multiple countries and geographic sites. Based on 20 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Jordan and Denmark, this study unsettled political refuge in its modern liberal meaning. It revealed the ways in which the Danish development schemes abroad intersect with biopolitical and carceral practices at home. This research further theorized migrants’ political subjectivities as well as the transnational dimensions of war and migration management.

This research was funded by a combination of awards including a research grant from the Danish Institute in Damascus, a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement grant (BCS-1558400), and a Social Science Research Council Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellowship (2016).

PhD students: I welcome contact from prospective PhD students and applications for doctoral funding, interested in topics related to political geographies, feminist legal geographies, displacement and forced migration.

• Articles

  • Jacobsen MH, Crane A, Dosch E. . Area 2025, 62(1), 975-984.
  • Jacobsen MH, Machold R. . Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 2025, 51(8), 2107-2124.
  • Johnson L, Jacobsen MH, Ehrkamp P. . Progress in Human Geography 2024, 48(6), 843-860.
  • Jacobsen MH. . Social Sciences 2023, 12(6), 351.
  • Jacobsen MH. . Gender, Place and Culture 2023, 30(9), 1303-1324.
  • Jacobsen MH. . Political Geography 2022, 92, 102488.
  • Jacobsen MH. . Annals of the American Association of Geographers 2022, 112(3), 819-827.
  • Jacobsen MH, Gilmartin M. . Dialogues in Human Geography 2021, 11(1), 69-72.
  • Jacobsen MH. . AREA 2021, 53(4), 595-602.
  • Murphy M, Jacobsen M, Crane A, Loomis J, Bolduc MF, Mott C. . ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 2015, 14(4), 1260-1282.

• Authored Book

  • Gilmartin M, Jacobsen MH, Kuusisto A. . Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2026.

• Book Chapter

  • Jacobsen MH. . In: Backer MD; Hopkins P; Van Liempt I; Finlay R; Kirndörfer E; Kox M; Benwell MC; Hörschelmann K, ed. Refugee Youth: Migration, Justice and Urban Space. Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2023, pp.32–47.

• Review

  • Jacobsen MH. . Space and Polity 2025, 29(3), 248-250.